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Topic: US Launch Schedule (Read 1085873 times)

United Launch Services, Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded a $354,811,947 firm-fixed-price contract for launch services to deliver the AFSPC-8 and AFSPC-12 satellites to their intended orbit. This contract provides launch vehicle production, mission integration/launch operations/spaceflight worthiness, mission unique activities, and mission unique options for the AFSPC-8 and AFSPC-12 missions. Work will be performed in Centennial, Colorado; Decatur, Alabama; and Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is expected to be complete by June 2020; and March 2020, respectively. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Fiscal 2017 and 2018 space procurement; and fiscal 2018 research, development, test, and evaluation funding in the amount of $354,811,947 will be obligated at the time of award. The Contracting Division, Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California is the contracting activity (FA8811-18-C-0002).

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, California, has been awarded a $290,594,130 firm-fixed-price contract for launch services to deliver the GPS III to its intended orbit. This contract provides launch vehicle production, mission integration/launch operations/spaceflight worthiness and mission unique activities for a GPS III mission, with options for two additional GPS III launch services. Work will be performed in Hawthorne, California; Cape Canaveral Air Force Space Station, Florida; and McGregor, Texas, and is expected to be complete by March 2020. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition and two offers were received. Fiscal 2017 and 2018 space procurement funding in the amount of $96,937,905 will be obligated at the time of award. The Contracting Division, Launch Systems Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California is the contracting activity (FA8811-18-C-0001).

Changes on March 15thChanges on March 16thChanges on March 17thChanges on March 19thChanges on March 21stChanges on March 23rdChanges on March 25thChanges on March 26thChanges on March 27thChanges on March 28thChanges on March 29thChanges on March 30th

With the latest contract awards, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are slated to launch five of the Air Force’s first six new GPS 3-series navigation satellites, beginning as soon as September with the launch of the GPS 3-1 spacecraft. The second GPS 3 satellite is set for launch on a Falcon 9 booster no earlier than March 2019, followed by the launch of the GPS 3-3 satellite later next year on a ULA Delta 4 rocket.

I was just informed on Twitter that NSF "has confirmed Bangabandhu is slipping to late-April" based on this post. Is there a source for this slip? Or is it an educated guess based on B1046 still being at McGregor? Just a caution... we need to be careful how we update some things as people read this as gospel. Not saying the launch won't slip given the core's location. But saying "late April", can we have a source for this or leave it as "April" to match the SpaceX public manifest thread?

Also, where does the 16:08 UTC launch time come from? Only reference I can find to that is a Reddit page back to our site where it says "Bangabandhu-1 March 30th and Iridium-5 March 20th at 16:08 UTC". 16:08 would have been IR-5's original UTC launch time, not Bangabandhu-1's launch time.

Then, a Falcon 9, from pad 40, will launch NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) on April 16 at 6:32pm EDT. The launch window lasts about one minute. Following that, a Falcon 9, from pad 39A, will carry the first satellite for the country of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu 1, on April TBD at the earliest.

Matt Desch @IridiumBossWe are having an issue with 1 of the 10 satellites in prep for #Iridium5. Our supplier and launch team is resetting for NET 3/31, with potential to shift into next week, if not resolved quickly. Launch success is priority #1! Will provide more info as available.

Positive update to our satellite and launch delay. Just been apprised there has been a technical resolution; satellites and F9 are in great shape and ready to go! Was ground harness test cable issue - now fixed. Launch now pulled back to Friday, 3/30 at 7:14am pdt! #GoTeam!

Matt Desch @IridiumBossWe are having an issue with 1 of the 10 satellites in prep for #Iridium5. Our supplier and launch team is resetting for NET 3/31, with potential to shift into next week, if not resolved quickly. Launch success is priority #1! Will provide more info as available.